When I first saw Will Smith, my initial reaction was simply "Black Charlie Chan".

Also, I've not been following this film, so I'm rather stunned to learn that Disney has entrusted what is surely one of their most important live-action remakes to...Guy Ritchie?!?!?! Not that Ritchie is incompetent or anything, but his recent filmography hasn't exactly set the box office alight, and it would seem he has very limited experience with "family" entertainment or musicals.

I wonder if this is a project most were unwilling to take on, and Disney is simply insisting on railroading it into theaters now, either before the 1992 film potentially becomes "too old", or possibly before the idea of an Western production of an Arabic story becomes too uncomfortable.

Another reason might be that none of these live action remakes are doing anything interesting in the first place?

I dunno, I got a kick out of the live action "Gaston" song and actually preferred it to the animated version. Beauty and the Beast was entertaining enough to merit a watch, even if Watson was a weak lead with a weaker voice.

Between Deepfake Will Smith, CW cinematography, and Jafar sounding about as menacing as a nerd in an 80s beer commercial, this took what was already not a good idea and somehow made it far worse than I expected

This is getting mercilessly mocked everywhere. That may or may not reflect the average moviegoer's response as well, but you really have to search hard to find anyone thinking this looks good. I think there's a good chance this one bombs, or as much as a movie like this from Disney can bomb

Although I’m sure the Genie will be the thing everyone discusses here (and it is genuinely jaw-dropping), I’m amazed at how bad the score sounds. I thought those were temporary synth strings at the beginning, but no, I guess this is the actual soundtrack. It sounds like it was auto-arranged by a computer.